Smile
by Sinnii
Summary: He's gorgeous when he smiles... /SLASH!


**I'M ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!**

**Hello peeps! How's everything! **

**I haven't been on here for quite some time; kind of lost my drive to write. Then most of my creative energy went to online Roleplay, which I spend a lot of time doing now. But I found myself listening to some good music a couple days ago, and early in the morning I was up just typing away. And this is the monstrosity that I cranked out.**

**I originally just posted it on my Sephiroth roleplay blog, but I decided to post it here too, since it's a fic and all. Hope you like it.**

**Beware of the SLASH, those not familiar with my writing.**

* * *

_"You should smile."_

_"…Smile?"_

_"Yeah! You know, like—"_

Sephiroth was well aware of what smiling was. He was aware of all known human facial expressions, every muscle involved in these expressions, as well as their proper applications… or at least in the context of Kalmic, Midgar, and Junon culture.

**[Smile. Noun. A facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth and by flexing muscles throughout the mouth.]**

Having traveled across this world, Sephiroth had come to understand smiling to be one of few gestures shared universally throughout the human species, regardless of native culture. An expression of joy, amusement, pleasure, most, if not all positive emotions could be signified with this simple upturn of lips, a gesture that could even bring perfect strangers closer.

Yes. Sephiroth knew what smiling was, knew its proper applications, and, thanks to some testing of his own, he also knew that he was physiologically capable of smiling.

_"I know what smiling is…"_

_"Well… then why don't you smile?"_

Why didn't he smile?

That was a more difficult question, and one he'd not had answer for at the time Zack posed it. He still didn't have an answer for it.

_Why don't you smile…_

"_I assure you, I am capable of the expression. I have simply never felt the need for it?"_

_"But… you get happy. I know you do 'cuz I've seen it in your eyes. But even then, you don't smile…"_

He recalled trying to smile once for Zack, if anything just to prove that he was capable of it. But the pull of his lips had felt awkward, almost…uncomfortable, as if facial muscles had been resisting. Zack had clearly been able to tell it was forced, insincere, if the way his head shook was any indication.

Something about it not being in his eyes? Sephiroth had not had any clue as to what that meant, so his only response was his oh, so typical look of confusion; a slight tip of his head, and the almost imperceptible widening of his eyes.

A mock scolding look was all he received, followed by a kiss.

_"I'm gonna get you to smile. Best believe it."_

_—-_

Sephiroth should have known better not to doubt the other. It seemed Zack shared something else with his late mentor; when he vowed to do something, he intended to succeed or try his damnedest.

And try Zack did.

Jokes had been first, but even Zack later admitted that he'd not expected them to work. They quite often went right over Sephiroth's head, a play on words rather difficult for him to grasp with his way of thinking. Words possessed only literal meaning in the First's mind, and thus, the humor had to be explained to him. Of course, once an explanation was given, said humor was drained quite brutally from the joke. And even after an explanation, there was little guarantee that Sephiroth would still understand why it was funny.

If anything, it caused more questions.

Next came tickling. But that had come some time after, when Sephiroth deemed Zack trustworthy enough to touch him spontaneously and without any sort of prior warning. Tickling had been a mild success. Zack had learned a rather closely guarded secret of the First's: that he was quite ticklish, and it wouldn't take much to get him to laugh and wriggle.

Unfortunately, the resulting smiles faded much too quickly. And once more Zack mentioned that they never reached his eyes, something Sephiroth still could not understand. Again, Zack was unsatisfied, and had yet to deem his mission a success.

All that followed after were spontaneous acts of silliness and random blunders, supposedly something Zack was quite good at. Sephiroth had learned from Angeal that the younger raven enjoyed making people laugh, and had taken advantage of various mistakes and absurd behaviors to achieve such an end.

But while they worked on others, these acts too were a failure where Sephiroth was concerned. The only responses received ranged from a confused arch of an eyebrow, a light frown, or worst of all, a discontent narrowing of cyan eyes.

_"You're stubborn,"_ had been all Zack could say, rubbing the back of his head in that sheepish way he so often did.

Stubborn?

That almost implied that Sephiroth was resisting him. However, he was fairly sure this was not the case. He was not _trying_ to make Zack fail; this was no battle between opposing wills.

He simply could not find humor where others seemed to…

Following that, Zack almost seemed to give up, something Sephiroth had found much more disheartening than the fact that he couldn't seem to smile like his lover wanted. He'd found the efforts valiant, Zack's persistence quite endearing. But it was wrong to expect the younger man to continue if the effort was futile.

For several days, things seemed to go back to normal, as if Zack's entire little mission had never been. Until…

"Hey, Seph!"

He was in the kitchen, in the midst of finishing his cleaning ritual when a weight collided with his back, arms embracing him tightly. Initially, he went back to cleaning, until he was suddenly turned to face the other, their lips meeting in a kiss.

And then when Zack pulled back, he grinned, a most sunny expression, one that… seemed to make his eyes glow with something other than the Mako within him. And for some reason time seemed to slow, the two of them remaining like as they were.

At first, Sephiroth was confused, almost asking what had Zack so happy. But then, the joy on his lover's face seemed to intensify. Eyes grew wider, making him seem so many years younger, their glow growing stronger seeming to spread over into his face.

"You're smiling!"

Zack's arms were thrown around his neck in a powerful embrace, while Sephiroth grew all the more confused.

"Zack, what are you…?"

It was then that he became aware of it, a much fainter tugging at his lips, no resistance given by the muscle beneath his skin. He felt the oddest rush within himself, he felt…lighter, his heart beating faster, something seeming to make his chest swell from within.

His lover pulled away finally, giving him that extraordinary grin once more, the expression only seeming to make that rush within him stronger. Hands pressed to either side of his face, fingers stroking his skin. Then their eyes met, Zack appearing almost…enthralled for some reason…

"It's finally in your eyes," Zack said, trying and failing to keep the laugh from his voice. "_Fuck_, you look gorgeous…"

A breath escaped him, something Sephiroth found especially peculiar. What an odd reaction.

Curious of what seemed to make Zack so happy, he reached up, fingers brushing along his own lips, noting that something felt… different. They felt…taut. Upturned?

He was smiling…

_He was smiling._

_-end-_


End file.
